Pikeman
Pikeman
A clunky multi-legged combat mechanoid specialized as a long-range weapons platform. While effective at distance, it is weak in close-range fights and in melee combat.
Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it.
Base Stats
- Type
- Mechanoid
- Market Value
- 1200
Armor
- Armor - Sharp
- 40%
- Armor - Blunt
- 20%
- Armor - Heat
- 200%
Pawn Stats
- Move Speed
- 2.5 c/s
- Health Scale
- 85% HP
- Body Size
- 1
- Mass
- 60 kg
- Pack Capacity
- 35 kg
- Carrying Capacity
- 75 kg
- Filth Rate
- 1
- Life Expectancy
- 2500 years
- Comfortable Temp Range
- -100 °C – 250 °C (-148 °F – 482 °F)
Melee Combat
- Attack 1
- Front left leg
12 dmg (Blunt)
18 % AP
2 second cooldown - Attack 2
- Front right leg
12 dmg (Blunt)
18 % AP
2 second cooldown - Attack 3
- Head
8.5 dmg (Blunt)
13 % AP
2 second cooldown
0.2 chance factor - Average DPS
- 3.36
Creation
- Crafted At
- Required Research
- Standard mechtech
- Resources to make
100 + 
40 + 
4 + 
1
Pikemen are a type of slow-moving, long range mechanoid.
Summary
As mechanoids, pikemen are immune to fire, toxicity, and temperature extremes, despite having a Comfortable Temperature. They do not need to eat, rest, and have no mood. Enemy mechs do not require power, though may spawn dormant. They will be stunned by EMP attacks and will "adapt" for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs), rendering them immune to further EMP strikes.
As an enemy
Pikemen will slowly move until they are at range, in which they will stay at maximum range to fire. They will not move around to seek cover, or avoid incoming fighters. Pikemen have moderate resistance to sharp damage and very small resistance to blunt damage, making them trivial to disable if one can get close enough to them.
Mechanoids can raid the player's base through events, and are found in most poison ships, psychic ships, and mech clusters
. Pikemen are often supported by centipedes, scythers, and lancers, though their speed and range difference often leaves them at the back of the formation.
Combat
Pikemen are always equipped with needle gun. It doesn't deal too much damage, but has an extremely long range, better-than-average armor penetration, and has the possibility of getting a lucky shot to the head. They also able to engage in (less effective) melee combat with colonists.
Pikemen have a shooting accuracy of 96%, equivalent to a pawn with a Shooting skill of 8. They have a melee hit chance of 62%, equivalent to a pawn with a Melee skill of 4.
Armor
| Armor |
|---|
As an ally
 | This article relates to content added by Biotech (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Pikemen are medium mechanoids, requiring Standard Mechtech to be researched. They are created from a large mech gestator with 1 standard subcore, 100 steel, 40 plasteel, and 4 components, taking up 2 bandwidth from a mechanitor. They take 1800 ticks to initally craft, and then it must gestate for 2 cycles. Mechanoids can be fully repaired at the cost of power and nothing else. A dead pikeman can be resurected for ? steel and 1 gestation cycle so long as the corpse is extant. Mechs do not count as a pawn for determining raid points, but still contribute towards wealth.
Mechs under player control require power: pikemen use 10% of their power per day while active. If set to dormant self-charging, they instead recharge for 1% power / day, without pollution. They recharge in a large mech recharger (400W), for 50% power/day, creating 10 wastepacks whenever the recharger's waste is filled up.
Analysis
As an enemy
Pikemen play a supportive role. While their damage output is atrocious, their range is massive, analogous to a sniper rifle. This makes kiting a group of mechanoids, or firing and backing away from them, a difficult task. It also gives a mechanoid group flat range. The needle gun's piercing value means that it has the potential to be lethal, if it hits the right body part. In large groups, they are not to be underestimated, and don't expect basic mini-turrets to be able to hit them.
As their description says, engaging pikemen at close range can be a viable way to take them down, though you'll have to deal with their comrades first. Their gun is weak, but their melee is even weaker.
As an ally
| This article relates to content added by Biotech (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
A pikeman's needle cannon is still as weak as ever. And, unlike your colonists, a tiny chance to instantly kill a raider doesn't really matter. Once you've researched High Mechtech, lancers become a much better option for general combat: they have the same bandwidth cost, move much faster, and have a much greater DPS.
Therefore, the pikeman is a niche support unit, using its massive range to its advantage. While any pawn can boast the same range with a sniper rifle, getting into a sniper duel risks getting a colonist's head lobbed off. Thus, pikemen are a safer way to lure sieges into attacking, pick off preparing raiders, or hunt with less risk than a human marksman. When using one, beware of their rather slow movement speed. For example, keep your fighting force ready and somewhere nearby when getting a siege to attack.
Note that the legionary shares the needle cannon, moves much faster, has a useful wide-shield, and has the same bandwidth cost. This comes at the cost of the slightly worse health scale (0.72 vs 0.85 for pikeman), a worse physiology, and a higher initial cost. The actual deterrent to just building legionaries is that they require the Ultra Mechtech researched. If you've already got that, then there isn't much reason to continue using pikemen.
Health
Note, that due to mechanoids having different body part structures, this table is only provided as a rough guide.
Trivia
The line in the description, "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it." is copied almost verbatim from a previous version of the Lancer's description, namely: "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest thing to do against a lancer is to charge."
Version history
- Introduced in 1.1.
- Biotech DLC - Introduced ability to create and control friendly mechanoids, including pikemen.
- Mechanoids | Core
- Centipede (Blaster, Burner, Gunner) • Lancer • Pikeman • Scyther • Termite
- Combat
- Centurion
• Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron - Command
- Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen (War urchin )
- Labor
- Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler
- Cluster | Buildings
- Condition causer • Count-down activator • Mech assembler • Mech capsule • Mech drop beacon • Mech high-shield • Mech low-shield • Mech node • Proximity activator • Unstable power cell
- Turrets
- Auto charge turret • Auto inferno turret • Auto mortar • Mini-slugger turret
- Creation | Pawn
- Mechanitor
- Buildings
- Mech gestator • Large mech gestator • Mechband antenna • Mechband dish